One of my basic organizing principles is “One in, One out.” I’ve written about it a few times, most recently in A Magazine A Day and If You Give A Mouse A Cookie. I apply that principle to clothes, linens, periodicals, and other items. But its largest impact comes when applying it to furniture. Within days of adopting our daughter 22 years ago, we walked over to the nearest baby furniture store and purchased an upholstered rocking chair. It has been a fixture…
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When New York City shut down back in March, we figured we wouldn’t have any problem working from home since we were already doing it. I’ve had a home office in the corner of my living room since starting my organizing business 14 years ago. My husband, a research scientist at a medical school, does a lot of writing on his laptop at the dining room table, going into the office only for meetings. While working from home was new for…
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When clients contact me for help with managing papers, I always ask them, “Do you have a file cabinet?” The answer almost always is, “Yes, but it’s full.” Usually their file cabinet is full with outdated papers that haven’t been reviewed in a long time. One of the first things I’ll do when I work with these clients is go through the old files and get rid of anything that is no longer relevant. Going through old papers is time-consuming, but it’s…
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New clients often ask me if they should purchase any supplies before our first appointment. I tell them no, because we can often use containers that they already have in new ways. For example, a seldom-used coffee mug can become a holder for pens and pencils, and a plastic container missing a lid can become a repository for small accessories in the bedroom or loose change in the entryway. Shoe boxes can become a useful repository in any room. In…
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Have you ever avoided a project because you knew the end result would be a lot more projects? I had that experience a few days ago. The task “Organize photo shelves” has been on my list since the pandemic began. All my life, I have put my photos in albums. I used loose-leaf binders, which fit very nicely on my bookcase. When I became a parent, however, I became a scrapbooker to better document my daughter’s life. I switched to 12″…
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